Microsoft Copilot answers web questions by sending a short generated query to Bing and writing a summary with sources, so publishers, privacy teams and IT admins each need to know which controls apply to them. Microsoft Copilot is an AI assistant from Microsoft that can search the web and return concise summaries with sources; it began as the AI-powered Bing preview on 7 February 2023 and was renamed Copilot on 15 November 2023. This page covers how Copilot grounds answers in Bing, how citations appear in Copilot and Copilot Search in Bing, what publishers can control with robots meta tags, how Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance reports citations, and which privacy and admin settings exist. It is written for publishers, marketers, privacy teams and IT admins who want facts from Microsoft's own pages rather than commentary.
Last checked: 2026-11-15.
This is an independent reference page from NHI Mgmt Group based on public provider documentation; it is not sponsored or endorsed by any provider.
Key takeaways
- Bing does the searching. When web search is on, Copilot may send Bing a generated query of "a few words informed by the user's prompt", not the full prompt, plus the client IP address for localisation.
- Citations are inline and listed. Copilot Search in Bing links sentences to their sources and reveals every link used with one click; the original 2023 Bing announcement said the new Bing "cites all its sources".
- NOCACHE and NOARCHIVE are the publisher levers. Since 22 September 2023 Bing has said NOARCHIVE keeps content out of its chat answers and training, and NOCACHE limits use to URL, title and snippet.
- Citation reporting exists. Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance (public preview from February 2026) reports Total Citations, Average Cited Pages and grounding queries across Microsoft Copilot, AI summaries in Bing and select partner integrations.
- Admins and users can switch web search off. The "Allow web search in Copilot" policy covers Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft Copilot Chat for work accounts, and users have a Web content toggle.
What are Microsoft Copilot web answers?
Microsoft describes Copilot as "your digital companion designed to inform, entertain, and inspire". One of its jobs is answering questions from the web: Copilot searches the web and returns a concise summary that includes sources. The same Bing grounding sits behind two related surfaces: the Copilot app itself and Copilot Search, an AI results layout inside Bing.
| Field | Value (as of 2026-11-15) |
|---|---|
| Provider | Microsoft |
| First release | 7 February 2023, AI-powered Bing and Edge in preview at Bing.com |
| Renamed | 15 November 2023: "Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise will now simply become Copilot"; generally available from 1 December 2023 |
| Current app | Updated Copilot app available since 18 August 2026 |
| Search provider | Bing search service |
| Model | 2023 launch: a "next-generation OpenAI large language model" with Microsoft's Prometheus approach; the current consumer page does not name a model |
| Where it runs | copilot.microsoft.com, Android and iOS apps, Mac app, Windows app and Copilot on Windows, Microsoft Edge, Xbox mobile app and Game Bar on Windows 11 |
| Plans | Free Copilot; Microsoft 365 Premium with higher usage limits |
| Publisher reporting | Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance |
How do you access Copilot web answers?
Microsoft's Copilot for individuals page lists the Copilot app on Windows (plus Copilot on Windows), a Mac app, Android and iOS apps, the web at copilot.microsoft.com, the Copilot icon in Microsoft Edge, and the Xbox mobile app and Game Bar on Windows 11. The page states that "Copilot can search the web and provide concise summaries with sources."
How does Copilot find and cite sources?
Microsoft Learn's page on web search in Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft Copilot Chat sets out what happens when web search is enabled.
- Decide: Copilot sends a search request to Bing only if web information would improve the response.
- Generate a query: the request is a generated query that "consists of a few words informed by the user's prompt", not the prompt itself.
- Localise: Copilot also sends the client IP address, which Bing uses to localise results such as nearby weather and events.
- Compose and cite: Copilot writes the answer from the results and shows the sources it used.
The same page lists what the generated query does not include and how it is handled for work accounts.
| Not sent in the generated query | Handling commitments in the Product Terms |
|---|---|
| The user's entire prompt, unless it is very short (for example "local weather") | Microsoft has no rights to the queries other than as needed to provide the service |
| Entire Microsoft 365 files or files uploaded into Copilot | Not used to improve Bing |
| Entire web pages or PDFs summarised in Microsoft Edge (Copilot Chat) | Not used to create advertising profiles or track user behaviour, and not shared with advertisers |
| Identifying information from the user's Microsoft Entra ID, such as username, domain or tenant ID | Not used to train generative AI foundation models; treated as customer confidential information |
Microsoft Learn also states that admins can log, audit and run eDiscovery on generated queries, that users can see them in Copilot Chat citations for 24 hours, and that the Data Protection Addendum, HIPAA compliance and the EU Data Boundary do not apply to generated search queries. For US government customers (GCC or DoD) web search is off by default.
How does Copilot show citations?
Microsoft's 2023 launch post said the new Bing "cites all its sources", with each answer linking to the pages it drew from. Copilot Search in Bing, announced in April 2025, describes the current citation layout in more detail.
| Citation element | What Microsoft says |
|---|---|
| Inline links | Sentences or passages in the response link to their sources |
| All sources | One click reveals every link used to build the answer |
| Placement | Cited sources and relevant web results appear at the top and bottom of the results page |
| Answer format | A summary, a direct answer or a structured layout depending on the query, with related topics to explore |
| Access | aka.ms/CopilotSearchinBing, the bing.com navigation bar, a suggested related topic, or the Bing mobile app |
| Availability | Worldwide except Russia and China |
As of 2026-11-15. In the Copilot app Microsoft's consumer page says only that web answers include sources; it does not describe the citation format.
Which models power Copilot?
Microsoft's Copilot for individuals page does not name the model behind Copilot; it refers only to "advanced AI". No model name is given for web answers in the pages checked for this guide.
How much does Copilot cost?
The Copilot for individuals page says "Copilot provides a free baseline experience." Microsoft 365 Premium, a paid subscription, adds the highest Copilot usage limits plus Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook; its AI features are for the subscription owner only and usage limits still apply. The price is not shown on that page.
How do ads work in Copilot?
The Copilot for individuals page does not mention advertising in answers. Microsoft's Copilot privacy FAQ, which covers the older Copilot app, says personalised ads are a separate choice from Copilot personalisation: if both are allowed, conversation history may be used to personalise ads, and a user who opts out of personalised ads does not get them in Copilot. Copilot does not serve personalised ads to signed-in users under 18.
What can publishers control?
Bing's 22 September 2023 post introduced robots meta tag options for its chat answers (then Bing Chat, now Copilot) and for training Microsoft's generative AI foundation models.
| Tag on the page | Use in chat answers | Use in training foundation models |
|---|---|---|
| No tag | May be included in answers | May be used |
| NOCACHE | May be included, but only URL, snippet and title are shown | Only URLs, titles and snippets may be used |
| NOARCHIVE | "Will not be included in Bing Chat answers, not be linked to in the answers" | Not used |
| Both NOCACHE and NOARCHIVE | Treated as NOCACHE | Treated as NOCACHE |
- Syntax: the post gives examples such as
<meta name="robots" content="noarchive, nocache">, or a bingbot-specific tag<meta name="bingbot" content="nocache">. - Search results unaffected: tagged content still appears in standard Bing search results.
- Trade-off: NOARCHIVE removes the page from chat answers and their links as well as training, so it also removes a source of citation traffic; NOCACHE keeps the link while limiting what is shown.
- Crawling: Copilot draws on the Bing search service, so a page that Bing cannot crawl or index is not available for grounding.
Controls for every major engine are compared field by field in the AI Crawler and Grounding Controls Tracker.
How do publishers measure Copilot citations?
Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance entered public preview in February 2026 and covers Microsoft Copilot, AI-generated summaries in Bing and select partner integrations.
| Report | Microsoft's description |
|---|---|
| Total Citations | Total number of citations displayed as sources in AI-generated answers during the selected time frame |
| Average Cited Pages | Average number of unique pages from the site displayed as sources per day over the selected range |
| Grounding queries | Key phrases the AI used when retrieving content that was referenced in AI-generated answers |
| Page-level citation activity | Citation counts for specific URLs |
| Visibility trends | Timeline of citation activity over time |
| Topics Portfolio (beta, 13 October 2026) | Groups grounding queries into topics with Topic, Topic Size, Sites Cited and Queries columns, Top Opportunity Queries where other sites are cited and yours is not, and one, two or three month windows |
As of 2026-11-15. Citation reporting across engines is tracked in the AI Search Citation Reporting Tracker.
What privacy controls exist?
Microsoft's support article on Copilot privacy controls describes settings for personal Microsoft accounts. Microsoft labels that article as covering the older Copilot app, superseded by an updated app on 18 August 2026, so check the current app's settings against Microsoft's newer privacy page.
| Setting (older app) | Where | What it controls |
|---|---|---|
| Personalization and memory | Profile icon, then Memory | Copilot's memory of conversations and personalised responses |
| Microsoft usage data | Memory | Use of data from Bing, MSN, Edge and other Microsoft products to personalise |
| Training on conversation activity; Training on voice conversations | Profile, then Privacy | Whether conversations are used to train Copilot's models, for future conversations only |
| See ads that interest you | Microsoft account ad settings | Personalised ads in Copilot and other Microsoft services |
- Retention: conversation history is kept for 18 months by default; single conversations or the whole history can be deleted.
- Excluded from training: users signed in with an organisational Entra ID account, Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscribers using Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps, users not signed in, signed-in users under 18, users who opt out, and users in Brazil, China (excluding Hong Kong), Israel, Nigeria, South Korea and Vietnam.
- Ads: with ads personalisation allowed and Copilot personalisation on, conversation history can further personalise ads; signed-in users under 18 do not receive personalised ads in Copilot.
- Other uses: Microsoft says it may still use conversations for product improvement, advertising, digital safety, security and compliance after a training opt-out.
What can IT admins control?
- Allow web search in Copilot: a Cloud Policy service for Microsoft 365 policy covering Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft Copilot Chat, with three options: enabled in both, disabled in both, or disabled in Copilot Work mode while enabled in Web mode and Copilot Chat.
- Fallback: if the policy is not configured, web search is available unless "Allow the use of additional optional connected experiences in Office" is set to Disabled.
- User toggle: users can turn off Web content under Settings, Personalization, Advanced, Web search; the toggle is unavailable when the admin disables web search.
- Audit: generated web queries can be logged, audited and searched with eDiscovery.
Deeper tenant controls for Microsoft 365 Copilot are in the Microsoft 365 Copilot Security Deep Dive.
When was Copilot released, and how has it changed?
| Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 7 February 2023 | AI-powered Bing and Edge announced in preview, using a next-generation OpenAI model with Microsoft's Prometheus approach |
| 22 September 2023 | NOCACHE and NOARCHIVE options for Bing Chat answers and training announced |
| 15 November 2023 | Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise renamed Copilot; general availability from 1 December 2023 |
| April 2025 | Copilot Search in Bing introduced, worldwide except Russia and China |
| February 2026 | AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools public preview |
| 18 August 2026 | Updated Copilot app available |
| 13 October 2026 | Topics Portfolio beta added to AI Performance |
As of 2026-11-15.
What are Copilot's limitations?
- Summaries can be wrong: open the cited source for legal, medical, financial or security decisions.
- The query is not the prompt: Bing sees a few generated words, so answers depend on how well that query captures the question.
- Model not named: the current consumer page does not say which model writes answers.
- Compliance boundaries differ: generated web queries sit outside the DPA, HIPAA compliance and the EU Data Boundary.
- Controls differ by account: personal accounts and work accounts have different training, retention and admin settings.
Common questions about the service
Is Microsoft Copilot free?
Yes. Microsoft offers a free Copilot experience; Microsoft 365 Premium adds higher usage limits and Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. The consumer page does not list prices.
How do I stop Copilot using my content?
Add NOARCHIVE to keep a page out of chat answers and training, or NOCACHE to allow only URL, title and snippet. Neither removes the page from standard Bing results.
Where identity and security fit
Whether a user is signed in with a personal Microsoft account or an Entra ID work account decides which training, retention and admin rules apply, so organisations should steer work use to managed accounts and set the web search policy deliberately. Broader governance of assistants is covered in the Enterprise AI Copilot Security Guide, and staff guidance in the Safe Use of AI Chatbots Guide.
Practitioner checklist
- Decide per section of your site whether NOCACHE, NOARCHIVE or no tag fits your goals for Copilot answers and training.
- Confirm key pages are crawlable and indexed by Bing, since Copilot grounds answers in the Bing search service.
- Verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools and review AI Performance citations, grounding queries and Topics Portfolio monthly.
- Set the "Allow web search in Copilot" policy in the Cloud Policy service to match your data policy.
- Tell compliance teams that generated web queries fall outside the DPA, HIPAA compliance and the EU Data Boundary.
- Steer work use to Entra ID accounts rather than personal Microsoft accounts.
- Recheck privacy settings in the updated Copilot app, since Microsoft's settings article covers the older app.
Standards and references
- Microsoft Learn: Web search in Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft Copilot Chat
- Bing Webmaster Blog: New options to control usage of content in Bing Chat
- Bing Webmaster Blog: Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools
- Bing Webmaster Blog: Topics Portfolio beta in AI Performance
- Bing Search Blog: Introducing Copilot Search in Bing
- Microsoft Support: Microsoft Copilot privacy controls
- Microsoft Support: Privacy FAQ for Microsoft Copilot
- Microsoft: Copilot for individuals
- Microsoft: Ignite 2023 announcements
Related NHI Mgmt Group resources: AI Answer Engines Hub · Microsoft 365 Copilot Security Deep Dive · AI Crawler and Grounding Controls Tracker · What Is Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)? Definition, Signals and Measurement